MMA fighter quits by jumping the cage and leaving arena in the middle of fight

Even in the crazy world of MMA, something happens every once in a while that manages to shock onlookers. This past weekend, an MMA fighter in Brazil did just that by jumping out of the cage in the middle of his fight and walking out of the arena.

Guilherme Cruz, Evilasio Silva (8-12) beat Claudinei Angelo (4-5) at the JF Fight Evolution in Juiz de Fora, Brazil after Angelo decided he’d had enough of that night’s fight and quit. Angelo didn’t quit by ‘tapping out’ as is the custom in MMA, however.

Angelo found himself with his back to the cage in Silva’s clinch but managed to break free. Right after doing so Angelo made a ‘T’ with his hands, appearing to ask the referee for a ‘time out,’ which is not allowed in MMA. The referee and his opponent were both visibly perplexed as to what Angelo meant and was doing.

A few moments later, however, he made perfectly clear – sort of – what he was up to. Angelo paced the mat and then walked over to a side of the cage, pulling on it in an apparent effort to open it up and leave. When that didn’t work, the fighter walked across the ring and hopped up onto and then over the cage fence.

Angelo walked along the ring curtain for a period then jumped onto the arena floor, shaking his head. He then walked through the crowd and out of the arena as he was pelted with boos. While that portion of the fight was caught on tape, the entire fight has not yet been released.

Perhaps if we saw the entire thing, we’d see something that could possibly help make more sense out of Angelo’s actions. He didn’t appear to be physically hurt beyond normal and he was not fairing too poorly in the portion of the bout that video above shows.

Perhaps it finally hit the fighter that he was taking on a guy named Evilasio which, if you think about it, would be pretty creepy. Let us know if you can remember a more bizarre turn of events in a fight in the comments section.

The head-scratching finish was first reported by MMAFighting's Guilherme Cruz.